Source: Gov. Greg Abbott/Twitter
On Wednesday, Governor Gregg Abbott (TX-R) announced during a press conference in Midland, Texas that Mexican drug cartels are now considered Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
Governor Greg Abbott issued Executive Order GA42 designating cartels as terrorists in Texas and directing the Texas Department of Public Safety to take immediate action.
Watch the video below:
“Fentanyl is a clandestine killer, and Texans are falling victim to the Mexican cartels that are producing it,” said Governor Abbott.
“Cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treated them that way. In fact, more Americans died from fentanyl poisoning in the past year than all terrorist attacks across the globe in the past 100 years. In order to save our country, particularly our next generation, we must do more to get fentanyl off our streets.”
“I also sent a letter demanding the Biden Admin. classify Mexican drug cartels operating in Texas as terrorist organizations. Texas is stepping up to get these gangs & deadly drugs off our streets,” Abbott wrote on Twitter.
Under the executive order, Texas Department of Public Safety are ordered to do the following:
- Establish a Mexican Cartel Division within the Texas Fusion Center to collect and analyze intelligence that will enable further apprehension, prosecution, and disruption of these foreign terrorist organizations.
- Identify, arrest, and impede the gangs in Texas that support the drug and human smuggling operations of these foreign terrorist organizations.
- Conduct multi-jurisdictional investigations of foreign terrorist organizations operating in Texas to support criminal prosecutions here and in other States.
- Conduct multi-jurisdictional investigations of transnational and Texas-based gangs that support the smuggling operations of foreign terrorist organizations.
- Target, seize, and dismantle the infrastructure, assets, vehicles, and buildings used by foreign terrorist organizations to smuggle drugs and people into and throughout Texas.
- Enhance southbound criminal interdiction operations resulting in the seizure of bulk cash and other assets being smuggled into Mexico.
- Intensify efforts under Operation Lone Star focused on detecting and interdicting transnational criminal activity between the ports of entry.
More from the news release:
Governor Abbott also directed DPS and law enforcement agencies to identify Texas gangs that support Mexican drug cartels and seize their assets in order to disrupt cartel networks operating in Texas communities, as thousands of Texans have been poisoned unwittingly by counterfeit pills laced with the deadly synthetic opioid.
With Mexican drug cartels disguising fentanyl as counterfeit pills and targeting children with “rainbow fentanyl” pills, the Governor emphasizes in his letter that immediate decisive action is needed from the Biden Administration to combat this deadly crisis impacting the nation.
Yesterday, the Governor sent a letter to state agency leaders directing them to ramp up efforts to combat the fentanyl crisis by preparing for the next legislative session with statutory changes, budget priorities, and other initiatives that will enhance Texas’ ability to combat fentanyl deaths across the state. The letter further directs state agencies to coordinate efforts to raise awareness of fentanyl’s lethality and prevalence.
Read Governor Abbott’s executive order designating Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations and the letter to the Biden Administration requesting federal terrorist classifications.
Last week, Gov. Abbott posted on Twitter stating that fentanyl is the number 1 cause of death in Americans ages 18-40.
Governor Abbott proposed earlier this year to make drug trafficking a murder crime in Texas.
“They’re taking a drug, a pill for the first time, and it’ll kill them,” Abbott said. “This is not a fentanyl overdose. This is poisoning by fentanyl, which we want to make a murder crime in the state of Texas.”
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